A-ARTs: ‘Head Shot’ of Odusiji in experimental photography

'Head Shot – Baba' (mixed media) by Ajibola Odusiji

By Tajudeen Sowole

IN his adventure through the path of experimental photography, Ajibola Oluwaseun Odusiji creates monochromatic textures that expose the vast techniques abound in portrait art.

Despite unveiling what looks like a bold approach to portrait art, Odusiji's style generates cautiousness. Within the context of fresh textures his works need more to keep his art from the space of predictable digital contents, in style and technique. The beauty of art and creative ventures is the ability to have more space for both critical and populist appreciations, of which Odusiji’s style attempts to explore, relatively though.

Grouped under the contemporary term, Head Shot, the series searches for emotions, histories, and cultural identities, beyond just the facial content of each work. Through digital-effect, Odusiji extracts identities from each subject in such depth that human display, in deliberate posture could not have achieved. Enhanced by brush movements-like textures, motifs, and other elements, the works lift portrait art from common and blank expressions into expressive form that generates memory, heritage, and storytelling.

Five in numbers, the Head Shot series have a lot in common that’s more than sharing portrait forms as the commonalities appear almost repetitive in visual contents. In Head Shot – Baba, the concept depicts the wisdom in aging that grows along the physical changes like wrinkles and other signs of advancing age. Odusiji captures vital role of lifetime experience and sacrifice, from which elders serve as fountains of knowledge across tradition, culture and identity in general.

Either in Head Shot – Bride, Head Shot – Mama, Head Shot – Drummer or Head Shot – Sissy as well as Head Shot – Baba, the overexposure to light technique meant to create whatever effect is the same across all the works. Apart from Head Shot – Baba that slightly escapes the optical diffusion of overexposure to light, every other work in the series almost lose the visual trace of the imagery. There is no doubt that Odusiji’s technique is intentionally overexposure of image, the identical textures from one piece to another seems to distract from the central theme.

As regards visual contents to support the theme, Head Shot – Bride, which supposedly becomes a conduit for preserving culture, celebrating identity with patterns, floral motifs, and ornamental features, provides little clarity. The burnt-out image of the bride leaves all the features of the bride’s wearables lost to the overexposure of light.

In contemporary era photography, the digital tools provide boundless windows for experimentation and adventure, especially for young artists who missed the pre-digital period. Shortly before the break of the 21st century, most experimental photography in textural contexts – of which digital assist comes – were done in what was referred to then as post-production laboratory process. Odusiji’s experiment with light, which has its merits in contemporary era photography of today would have passed for badly exposed footage in pre-digital era, despite being experimental.

As experimental photography, specifically in portrait art, Odusiji’s Head Shot looks like a work-in-progress that needs more time to mature. For example, varieties in shades and lights as well as hues, from one portrait to another, even in the overexposure technique could make the works more engaging, in critical appreciation. The monochrome textures of all the works, with each dissolving into whitened background creates unfriendly visual perception that makes appreciation complex.

However, the modern term of ‘Close Up’ applied to capture portrait of torso level seems to be going into extinction, so confirmed by Odusiji’s Head Shot series. Although a popular culture term, Head Shot does not exactly capture the visual accuracy of portrait art the way Close Up does, it has however become acceptable in art parlance of contemporary period.